


Be My Baby

by spoowriterfic



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 12:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16723599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoowriterfic/pseuds/spoowriterfic
Summary: Set between 111, when Waverly gets shot, and 112, when Willa catches Waverly and Nicole in the barn.  Nicole gets an unsettling text at work, which leads to her deciding to get Waverly away from the chaos that is the Homestead, if only for a night.This was originally going to be a quick "the first time Nicole called Waverly 'baby'" story, but it kind of grew in the telling, as Tolkien would say.





	Be My Baby

**Author's Note:**

> Stole another title from a Jann Arden lyric. This one from her song "Wonderdrug" (which is one of her fairly few sappy songs).

Swing shift.

For the third week in a row.

She knew it was…well, Nedley was too kind to actually do any actual _hazing_ of a new cop under his command…but there was definitely a newbie thing going on here.

It was worse even than the graveyard shift. At least _then_ there were false alarms caused by all the drunks slinking home after last call and forgetting they had alarm systems.

Nedley had put her _there_ when she came back after the Jack of Knives. He’d tried to play it off, but Nicole had gotten the distinct impression that he thought she might stay out of trouble if she were minding the phones in the middle of the night. What she had never quite figured out was whether he’d done so out of concern for her or just frustration that one of his officers had been so badly hurt so soon after he’d recruited her.

She’d never been accident prone, per se, but she was also not the type to sit on the sidelines and sometimes that had…consequences. She hoped he’d see that as a valuable thing in time. He _had_ recruited her, after all, though she was still not sure what exactly had caught his eye. Sure, she’d been top of her class, but still….

What was really worrying her, though, besides the daunting thought of eight hours with nothing to do but paperwork, was that the BBD office was eerily empty. It had _been_ empty at least since she’d come on shift, if not longer. It never meant anything good when the whole lot of them was gone at once.

It was hard. It would be harder once Nedley left for the evening and she was truly alone with the worry that was already sitting like a Waverly-shaped rock in the pit of her stomach.

It was a weeknight, after all, but since it wasn’t the graveyard shift, the most exciting call she was likely to get was someone finding a cat up a tree; she’d have plenty of time to sit and stew about that damn empty office.

She wasn’t sure, really, what was going on with BBD – or, for that matter, with the Earps – but she was pretty sure there was something X-Files-y about the whole thing.

She already knew Waverly well enough to know when she was hiding something – and she was _definitely_ hiding something about BBD in general and Wynonna in particular.

And now that Willa was back, it was just getting more and more complicated.

Much as she’d tried to be a dutiful sister and hide her mixed feelings, it was obvious, to Nicole at least, that Waverly was struggling with having her eldest sister back.

It was as though she were trying to convince herself to be happy about it for Wynonna’s sake and that was so, so very…Waverly.

From the little she’d said about her childhood so far, Nicole had gathered that she’d been a left out, neglected, possibly abused, lonely little girl. And from what she’d said, it sure sounded like Willa had been a bully.

Which made her mixed feelings perfectly natural, but Nicole knew Waverly better than that – she would think that for Willa’s sake, and definitely for Wynonna’s, that she should hide her own pain and allow them the joy of their reunion.

Even if it left Waverly out in the cold again.

It was hard to know how much to push – not only because they were so new, but also because Nicole was very, _very_ conscious of Waverly’s tendency to be a people-pleaser and was on high alert to make sure Waverly felt no pressure from her about pretty much anything.

She passed the time, though, browsing vegan recipes for the dinner at her house she’d promised Waverly for the next time she was off-duty at a reasonable hour. Would candles be too much? She’d kept things light the other times, giving Waverly, who had been understandably nervous and a bit shy, a chance to grow comfortable in their deepening relationship, but she sensed Waverly was ready for a step forward.

She still felt a little giddy about that.

She’d spent so long nursing her crush, only to have her hopes seemingly dashed that afternoon in her patrol car. Then, just a couple of hours later, her life had taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the better. It was sometimes still hard to take in.

It was a few minutes to four when her phone vibrated on the desk. She glanced idly at it, hoping for a ‘have a good shift’ text – or maybe even a ‘can I come visit you?’ – from Waverly.

She nearly dropped the phone when she read what Waverly _really_ said. When she got to the word ‘shot’ she actually yelped aloud, “You _what_?!”

“You okay?” Nedley called from his office.

Nicole, torn, glanced between Nedley, who was now peering at her in concern from the doorway, to her phone, and back again. “Uh, yeah. Just…um, a friend had an, um…emergency.”

She wasn’t sure why she was being evasive; besides, she was new enough in town that Nedley knew damn well the Earps were basically the only friends she had. He’d tried to get her to hang out with Chrissy once or twice, but Nicole had found her vapid and a little silly, an impression Waverly had eventually admitted to sharing, and she’d been content to pine over Waverly in private.

“This friend named Earp?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Which one?”

“Waverly. Well, probably both – _all_ – of them, but Waverly got hurt.”

Was she imagining slightly more-than-professional concern in Nedley’s eyes? “Ah,” he said.

“She says it wasn’t – wasn’t a big deal.”

The look he gave her said clearly that he knew she was trying to convince herself as much as him.

Nedley had, she now remembered, worked for Ward when _he_ was sheriff. She wondered if, maybe, he knew more than he let on about Purgatory’s weirdness in general and the Earps in particular, and resolved to do a little sleuthing later – but for now, her focus was on Waverly. She had just started marshaling her excuses when: “Go on,” he said gruffly. “I’ll cover for ya.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Police cruisers didn’t have Bluetooth. At least, police cruisers in Purgatory didn’t; maybe in a bigger department with a bigger budget and newer cars, there might be something approaching modern technology in the cars. But not here.

That had never bothered her before, but right now she wanted to hear Waverly’s voice with every fiber of her being – and there was no way to legally do so.

Logically, she knew Waverly had to be relatively okay – if for no other reason than she’d been capable of texting her in the first place. Her brain knew better, but her heart had never moved on past the word ‘shot.’

Finally, figuring that she could always ticket herself if she ran off the side of the road, she used one hand to turn the volume on her phone up as loud as it would go, then rested her phone, speaker end up, in the cup holder in the center console, and asked Siri to call Waverly.

The phone was one ring away from going to voicemail when Waverly picked it up. “Hey,” she said simply.

When she heard Waverly’s voice, Nicole released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “W-Waverly,” she spluttered, “are – are you – ?”

“It’s just a graze.”

“ _Just?!_ ” Nicole squeaked in protest.

“That’s what I said to Dolls!”

Nicole forced herself to take deep breaths, to stay calm. She could hear residual panic in Waverly’s voice and someone had to keep it together.

So, as usual, she would keep it together.

She’d always been that way; she could be rock steady in a crisis and then later, usually when she was alone, she would sometimes allow herself to fall to pieces.

Sometimes.

“What _happened_?” She turned up the road that led to the Homestead. “You know what? Never mind. You can tell me when I get there. I’m only a couple minutes out.”

“Aren’t you on duty tonight?” Waverly’s cautious question didn’t reveal much but it set off alarm bells in Nicole’s head anyway.

“Nedley said he’d cover for me.” After a moment with no answer, Nicole added into the silence, “It was his idea.”

“Y-you don’t have to – I mean, I’ve got a cut and a bruise but Wynonna put a bandage on it before she left, and – ”

Nicole’s jaw dropped. “She left you _alone?!_ After you got _shot_?”

What the _hell_ was going on? Nicole wasn’t sure of much of anything related to the Earps but she _did_ know that Wynonna was absolutely devoted to her sister and it would have taken a crisis of Biblical proportions to make her abandon Waverly just after getting shot.

Silence – a long, uncomfortable silence.

Nicole tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. Moments like these were a delicate dance with Waverly, who had spent so long being an afterthought that sometimes her natural tendency was to preemptively assume she was going to be abandoned. She wasn’t inclined to ask someone to stay, because she just figured they wouldn’t. But at the same time, Nicole had promised herself she would never, ever pressure Waverly to do anything she didn’t want to.

Finally, she steeled herself and asked, “Do…do you…really not want me to come? I won’t if you’re not feeling up to company. You can tell me.”

Another long silence, but this time she could swear she could hear Waverly’s brain turning over her options. “It’s not that I don’t want you to come. It’s just…you don’t have to. It’s not a big deal.”

“Waverly. A _bullet_ came near your body. It’s a big deal. Of course it’s a big deal. It’d be a big deal if all it did was make a breeze that messed up your hair. Don’t tell me what you think I should do. What do you _want_ me to do?”

No answer.

“Waves?” Nicole prodded, gently, carefully treading the line between prodding and pressure.

“I’ll wait for you on the porch.”

Nicole smiled. “Okay. Be there any second.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered, pulling Waverly in for a gentle hug as soon as they closed the door to the Homestead. “Your text freaked me out.”

“I’m sorry…I was trying not to. I mean, I started with ‘I’m okay.’”

“Yeah, and ended with ‘I was shot.’” Nicole grimaced. “How could ‘I was shot’ _not_ freak me out?”

“Because I said I was okay?” Waverly said as though it were obvious.

It probably was, to Waverly.

Nicole leaned back just far enough to thread her fingers through Waverly’s hair and make better eye contact. “You could tell me you got a paper cut and I’d freak out.” She smiled at Waverly’s shy look and slightly self-conscious chuckle. “But I’m glad you told me anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because…now I get to shower _you_ with some TLC. I owe you after the last time.”

_Nicole was lying disconsolately in her hospital bed. The seconds were crawling by like years; there was nothing worth watching on TV and she couldn’t pace or even really move. They’d taken the IV out, at least, but everything ached and the thought of standing up was overwhelming. On top of that, her hand ached where the doctor had just been forced to put in two more stitches after she’d bled through her third gauze wrapping; her chest hurt where she’d been kicked; and the cut above her eye itched fiercely._

_None of that mattered as much, though, as the feeling that Wynonna was in more danger with every second that passed._

_That was keeping her stomach churning and every few minutes, she’d forget about the stitches and try to drum her fingers against her thigh only to freeze at the jolt of pain in her hand._

_And then there was the vivid memory of the tears in Waverly’s eyes and her muffled sob as she left the doorway of Nicole’s hospital room, which hadn’t stopped echoing in her head from the second she’d left._

_It had been hours, and –_

_“Nicole?”_

_It was Waverly._

_And she was smiling._

_The knot in Nicole’s stomach dissolved so fast it left her lightheaded._

_“Waverly! Is Wynonna – ”_

_“She’s fine. Well, I mean, there was, uh, it – she’s okay. Or she will be.”_

_Nicole frowned, sensing there was a whole novel’s worth of story behind that. “Do…do you want…to talk about it?”_

_Waverly wrung her hands together. “I…I wish I could.”_

_“Wynonna was going to…I mean, we were going to go talk about all of this…” Nicole gestured vaguely. “…stuff.”_

_“Oh, Nicole,” Waverly groaned, frustrated, “I really, really wish I could tell you, but it…really should come from her. It’s her story….” Waverly looked away, eyes darkening for just a second before she shook her head and came back to herself. “I just came to see…how you’re doing.”_

_Despite herself – despite the fact that she told herself repeatedly that falling so hard and so fast was a mistake – she felt herself relax for the first time since she’d awoken in that ditch just from the warmth of the friendliness in Waverly’s eyes. “Thanks. I’m…” She shrugged. “…okay. Sore. But okay. They’re keeping me overnight because of the concussion and, um, the resuscitation thing…but they said they’re gonna discharge me in the morning.”_

_Waverly gestured towards the side of the bed. A small, distracted part of Nicole’s brain registered the fact that there was a perfectly good chair right next to the bed even as the rest of her smiled and nodded. Waverly sat on the bed and rested her hand on Nicole’s knee. “Do you have someone who can drive you home?”_

_It took Nicole half a second too long to answer; too much of her brain had seized up and focused exclusively on the warmth of Waverly’s hand on her knee. “I, um, no. I was…gonna call a cab.”_

_Waverly’s eyes widened in horror. “Nicole! You absolutely will not! I’ll pick you up.”_

_“You don’t have to. Especially not after I got your sister – ”_

_“That was not your fault. Besides, I want to. What time should I get here?”_

_It was all the medication, Nicole told herself, that made her eyes mist up a little. She was not a crier. And she certainly wasn’t going to get all weepy about a…friend…offering to drive her home from the hospital. Right? “Um. Around ten?”_

_Waverly smiled. “Okay. I gotta go check on Wynonna, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”_

_She squeezed Nicole’s knee and was gone before Nicole could even think to say thank you, but the warmth of Waverly’s hand lingered on her knee for a good long while after she left._

“All – all I did was drive you home and – ”

“And you brought me a week’s worth of food and an auto-feeder for Calamity so I wouldn’t have to bed down to feed her. Then you tucked me into bed and cooked me lunch and….” Nicole shrugged. “And you smiled at me. And that made me feel better than all the fancy meds they gave me at the hospital all put together.”

“But I didn’t even….” Waverly shrugged. “I wanted to hold you so badly.”

Nicole grinned widely. “You were onto something, you know. _This_ kind of TLC is _so much_ better.”

“Y-you don’t have – ”

Nicole allowed herself a brief moment of fierce, fiery anger towards all the people who had left Waverly feeling so…unvalued. “I know I don’t have to. I _want_ to. Besides…” She put a gentle peck on Waverly’s nose. “…I haven’t seen you for more than a minute or two at a time in days. At least this way I have an excuse to hang out here for a while.”

Waverly blushed and looked away. “I…started to tell Wynonna today, but – but we got interrupted.”

“Hey,” Nicole said firmly, shaking her head, “Who you tell – and when, and how, and how much – is entirely up to you. Okay? I know it’s scary even if you’re ninety-nine percent sure you know how it’ll go. There’s no timeline for this, okay?”

Waverly shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be so…like this.”

“Waves….”

“No, sorry. I – ”

“Waverly. It’s okay. I know it’s new for you. I’ve been there. You know I get it. And for what it’s worth, Wynonna adores you and I’m pretty sure whenever you do tell her, the only thing she’ll do is come harass me to make sure I’m treating you right.” She could see Waverly wasn’t ready to talk more, so she said, “Come on. Let me change the dressing on this, okay?”

They went into the kitchen where Wynonna had left the gauze and antiseptic cream. She gently pulled the tape securing the bandage away and felt her heart jump into her throat.

It took all of Nicole’s self-discipline – and she could say without hubris that she had a lot of _that_ – to keep her face neutral when she saw the wound on Waverly’s side.

Dolls had been right – it _was_ just a graze. The bullet had left a bruise and a wide but shallow cut but it wasn’t anything a couple of days of some gauze and Neosporin couldn’t take care of.

But it didn’t really matter.

Because when she saw the marks on Waverly’s skin, it brought home to her in a very visceral way that if the shooter, whoever it had been, had aimed just a bit to the right, Waverly would have been in far more serious trouble indeed.

It shook her more than she’d expected it to. “Ohhh, baby…” she said, gently touching the reddened skin at the edge of the wound.

“W-what?”

“What?”

“You…called me baby.”

Nicole wasn’t quite sure what to make of Waverly’s reaction; she sounded more confused than anything. A little alarmed, she pulled back and asked, “Is – is that not okay?” Even as she carefully studied Waverly’s face, her hands continued gently wiping the dried blood off Waverly’s side quite without her conscious direction.

“No, it’s fine. It is. It’s just….”

Waverly shrugged and Nicole, leery of Waverly’s tendency to put on a façade to spare others’ feelings, felt the need to be sure: “I can – I mean, we don’t _have_ to do pet names. I didn’t think about it, Waverly, honestly, it just slipped out but – ”

This time, she could see the wheels turning in Waverly’s head, and it made her feel better to see she was genuinely thinking it through. “It…sounds different. From you.”

“In a good way, I hope?”

Waverly nodded firmly. “I don’t – I want to be honest.”

“Always.”

“I just don’t want to sound like I’m bashing – I mean, it was…okay…with Champ. I liked it. I liked him.”

Nicole bit her tongue, stifling her very different opinions about someone who so devalued Waverly’s intelligence – not to mention blatantly, openly cheated on her. It wasn’t the time, and she understood that Waverly wanted to keep whatever positive memories she had of Champ even as they embarked on their relationship.

But Nicole was very, very sure about one very important thing. Champ had liked Waverly – maybe even cared for her – but Nicole? She intended to _cherish_ her.

“But…” Waverly continued, shyly biting her lower lip. “But this is…so much better.” Nicole felt herself smiling a bit sappily, quite without intending to. “I hated it when Champ called me ‘baby.’ But…I like…how you said it. It didn’t sound…you’re not…condescending or…possessive or anything.” Nicole forced herself to stay silent again, though it was hard, but this was the first time Waverly had opened up like this, really, and she had to honor that.

Even if the idea of Champ making Waverly feel like something he _owned_ , even unintentionally, just…rubbed up against her skin like sand paper.

“The words don’t count, do they?” Waverly said, as if she were just figuring that out for herself. “It’s…the feeling behind it.”

“So is it – is it okay that I call you that?”

Waverly smiled and gave her a quick kiss. “Can I call you sweetie?”

“You know, I’m not usually big on nicknames,” Nicole confessed.

Waverly’s face fell. “Oh.”

“I said ‘usually.’” Nicole shrugged. “Baby, you can call me whatever you want.”

“Even…honeybear?” Waverly grinned mischievously. “I read that in a story once and….”

Nicole winced. “…uh…maybe not in public?”

Waverly just laughed. “Okay, sweetie.”

Nicole leaned forward and brushed her lips against Waverly’s. She smiled into the kiss, feeling Waverly’s fingers tangling into her braid; things were just starting to get heated when they heard the unmistakable sound of Wynonna’s truck parking outside.

Nicole sighed. “Damn, she has terrible timing,” she said, thinking of the several times already that Wynonna had managed to interrupt a moment between them.

It really was an impressive, if frustrating, feat.

“It’s a talent,” Waverly agreed, fixing her hair with an apprehensive glance towards the door that set off new alarm bells in Nicole’s head.

Problem was she wasn’t sure _which_ alarm bells. Were they the cop alarm bells or the concerned girlfriend ones? Or, worse, were they both at once?

Was she worried about getting caught? About Wynonna putting two and two together? Or was it something more mundane, if sadder: was she worried that Willa would be with Wynonna when she came through the door?

“Look, Nedley gave me the night off. If you…need a break…from all this…you’re welcome to come over for dinner.” She shrugged, making it clear that the offer was something she would be fine with Waverly refusing. “You could even stay if you wanted.”

Before Waverly could answer, Wynonna burst into the kitchen, frowning. “What are you doing here?”

Willa was behind her, staring at them in her slightly cold, calculating way, and, out of the corner of her eye, Nicole noticed Waverly stiffening.

Her immediate instinct was to get up, to put herself bodily between Willa and Waverly.

She didn’t; it would be too obvious – if not to Wynonna, then certainly to Willa.

But she filed away the reaction for later. She might have been a rookie cop, but she’d always been good at reading people and her instincts were almost always proven right in the end.

“I heard there was trouble out here,” Nicole lied smoothly. “Came to check on you all and found Waverly all by herself, so I thought I’d keep her company.” She put a little edge to the words ‘all by herself’ and was slightly gratified to see Wynonna squirm a little.

And, meanwhile, Willa continued to stare at them.

Something in that look made her uneasy – and it did more than that to Waverly, who physically shrank next to her, staring intently at the kitchen table so she wouldn’t have to meet anyone’s eyes.

She made a quick decision – if only for the night, she was going to get Waverly away from that look, away from Willa and whatever chaos she’d brought into Waverly’s life. Even if she was nothing more than a formerly-spoiled, overgrown bully – she was going to get Waverly away from her.

“So, actually,” she said conversationally, catching Waverly’s eye to hopefully get her to play along. “The other reason I came by is I came across this old arrest report? And it’s the weirdest thing. The witness statement…I think it’s in…” She wracked her brain, trying to remember which languages Waverly was fluent in. She knew there were four of them, and she knew that she had better-than-passable knowledge of several more, but she couldn’t think of a single one.

“…didn’t you say Quechua?” Waverly asked, a gleam of gratitude in her eyes.

“Yeah, at least, I think that’s what it is. And I remembered that Waverly’s fluent in lots of languages, so I thought maybe she could translate it for me. It’s…kinda boring there once Nedley leaves.”

“You want my sister to translate an old police report while you work the graveyard shift? And you didn’t just bring it here?” Wynonna said skeptically. Willa raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Nicole almost corrected the assumption – she’d been assigned swing shift, after all – but realized if she was going to get Waverly away for the whole night, she couldn’t very well claim she was working only until midnight.

Fortunately, Waverly was quicker on the draw than she was. “Come on, Wynonna, I’ve pulled all nighters before. Besides, I need the practice. My Quechua _is_ getting a little rusty. And she can’t just be leaving police files all over Purgatory.”

Wynonna eyed them suspiciously.

Willa just stared. Quiet. Motionless. Unblinking.

_Like a snake_ , Nicole thought uneasily.

Something broke the spell, and Wynonna shrugged. “Yeah, sure, whatever. You don’t need my permission to stay up being nerdy all night. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Nicole could feel Willa’s eyes burning a hole into her back as they left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nicole knew she’d made the right decision when she saw Waverly slump, then sigh, in relief as soon as the door to Nicole’s house closed behind them.

She approached Waverly from behind and wrapped her arms around her. Waverly melted back into her. “It’s okay, baby. You can relax here.”

“Am I a horrible person?” Waverly whispered forlornly. “I’m a horrible person.”

“No.” Nicole put her hands on Waverly’s shoulders and gently turned her around. “Not even close. Wanna know why?”

“Why?”

“‘Cause I only like _awesome_ people. And I like you a whole lot.”

Waverly smiled sadly, unconvinced. “I should be happy Willa’s back.”

She took Waverly’s statement at face value, even though she was sure that ‘should’ really meant ‘supposed to.’ “There’s no ‘should’ when it comes to feelings.”

“Still. She’s my sister. We thought she was dead, and she wasn’t, and now she’s back, and….”

Nicole had been debating with herself through the entire drive to her house, and it still came down to a mental flip of the coin but she said, “Waves, I don’t know why and I don’t know what it means, but she makes my skin crawl. You’re not a horrible person. Just a perceptive one.”

Something broke in Waverly’s eyes at that – it was relief and shame and gratefulness and sadness all at once – and Nicole pulled her close, tucking her head under her chin and rocking them in place.

“God, I’m sorry,” Waverly said later.

“No, hey, everything else aside, a really scary thing happened to you today. It’s okay to freak out a little bit.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you have to deal with it.”

“No, but you know what _does_?” Nicole agreed, tilting Waverly’s head up with a finger under her chin. “I _get_ to help you deal with it because I care about you.” She pulled Waverly close and kissed her forehead, then pulled back. “Want the nickel tour?”

Waverly looked up at her, eyes still a little red. “Would…would it…be really rude of me to say I’d rather just sit down and, um…cuddle?”

Nicole stroked Waverly’s cheek. “Absolutely not. Come on.” She followed Waverly to the couch, then paused. “Hey, hold on one sec,” she said, heading for the stairs. “Be right back.” She trotted up the steps and came back holding two new, fluffy blankets. One was a fuzzy, light blue cotton blanket and the other was a fleece with a desert sunset on it. “I, um…somehow these ended up in my Amazon cart last time I ordered something.”

Waverly’s face froze in complete shock. It was as though no one had ever –

Nicole cut that thought off mid-sentence, saving it for some other time when she needed motivation to beat the crap out of a punching bag.

“You…bought those…for me?” Waverly finally stuttered.

She deliberately kept her tone light as she sat down next to Waverly on the couch and handed her both blankets. “Sure I did. Couldn’t have you freezing to death the first time you spent the night, could I?”

Waverly blinked tears out of her eyes, hugging the blankets to herself for a moment before she unfolded them and wrapped herself up in them. She lifted one side and raised her eyebrows at Nicole, who smiled but instead pulled Waverly, blankets and all, up against her side.

She handed Waverly the TV remote. “Feel free,” she said, leaning back and letting herself absorb the feeling of Waverly’s warmth curled into her side.

“Nicole Haught,” Waverly said a few seconds later, laughter in her voice, “do you _really_ have twenty-two episodes of _The Golden Girls_ recorded off of _three_ different channels saved on your DVR?”

“Uh….”

Waverly wrapped her free arm around Nicole, scooting down a little so she could rest her head on Nicole’s shoulder. “Bet your favorite’s Blanche.”

“Nah. Sophia all the way. I’ve got a thing for short, whip-smart ladies who aren’t afraid to speak their minds.”

Waverly rolled her eyes but accepted the compliment with a smile anyway. “Want to watch one? I could use something silly.”

Nicole kissed the top of Waverly’s head. “Whatever you want, baby.”

She didn’t really pay attention to the episode except to pull Waverly a little closer when Dorothy and Sophia sang “I’ve Got You, Babe”; she was concentrating instead on gently running her fingers through Waverly’s hair, slowly and soothingly, until she eventually felt the last of the tension leave Waverly’s body as she melted completely against Nicole’s right side.

“Better?” she asked quietly.

Waverly sighed. “I don’t think…I’ve really relaxed…oh, God, in _days_. I can’t sleep, I can’t – ”

“Hey,” Nicole interrupted her. “You just got relaxed. Let it go, baby. Nothing’s gonna hurt you here. Not even Calamity.”

“How do I know for sure you even _have_ a cat?” Waverly said with a joking pout. “I’ve been here lots of times and I haven’t even _seen_ her yet.”

“She never comes near new people.”

“Oh, really?”

Nicole rolled her eyes with a fond grin. She should have known Waverly would take that as a challenge.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By eleven o’clock, they’d made a good dent into Nicole’s DVR backlog and eaten a cobbled-together dinner; Nicole had already made a mental note to stock her fridge and pantry with a good deal more vegan-friendly options, but they’d found enough to make do.

They’d spent several hours curled up together on the couch, halfway between vertical and horizontal, and Nicole would have been happy to stay that way for the foreseeable future, but she had heard Waverly yawn a few times and she knew she had to be exhausted.

She had to ask; she wasn’t going to assume Waverly wanted to stay. “Hey,” she said, ducking her head to catch Waverly’s eyes when their latest episode had ended. “Do you want me to drive you home? You’re welcome to stay if you want.”

Waverly snuggled closer. “I haven’t slept a night through since….” She bit her lip. “You’re really okay if I stay?”

Nicole stroked Waverly’s cheek her with fingers. “You’re kidding, right? Baby, you are always – _always_ – welcome here. Okay? Even if I’m not here, and you just need…space, or whatever.” She shrugged. “There’s a spare key hidden in a little hole I drilled behind the eaves on the right side of the house.” She grinned at Waverly’s raised-eyebrow look. “I’m a _cop_ , Waverly; do you think I’d put it somewhere obvious?”

“Thank you.”

Nicole leaned down and gave Waverly a brief kiss. “So, look, there’s no un-awkward way to ask this. You want me to sleep on the couch? Or on the floor by the bed so you’re not alone?”

“What?! No! No one’s sleeping on the floor and if anyone’s gonna sleep on the couch, it should be me!”

“Waverly….”

“This is _your_ house, Nicole. You shouldn’t have to sleep on your couch because my family’s a disaster.”

“Okay, one: I don’t care if your family’s a disaster. I care about _you_ , okay, and if your disaster of a family is part of that? Fine by me. And two: you get the bed. That’s not negotiable. You need a good night’s sleep.” She gently ran her thumbs over the dark circles under Waverly’s eyes. “You look like you need five or six of them.”

Waverly turned that over in her head for a few seconds, then a trace of the reckless courage she’d shown in Nedley’s office appeared in her eyes. “We could always…sleep in your bed together.”

“We could,” Nicole agreed, careful to sound neutral. “Are you sure?”

Waverly’s nose crinkled in amusement. “I just meant _sleep_ , Nicole.”

Nicole laughed. “I know. It’s still a step.”

They locked eyes. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous,” Waverly said, “but it’s the good kind of scared. The skydiving kind of scared. So if-if you’re okay with it too…then…let’s go to bed?”

“Okay,” Nicole whispered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Waverly had laughed in delight when Nicole offered her unicorn t-shirt and a pair of shorts to sleep in; it was the happiest she had sounded in _days_ and it had made the entire thing worth it, as far as Nicole was concerned.

Nicole came back from the bathroom after changing for bed herself only to freeze in her doorway with a gentle smile as she saw Waverly sitting motionless and cross-legged on the floor of the bedroom, reaching out one hand towards a suspicious Calamity Jane with the fingers facing downwards.

Calamity eyed her warily, but Waverly remained motionless, offering her fingers for the cat to sniff without making any overt moves towards her.

Nicole was about to remind her that Calamity never bonded with new people when, to her shock, Calamity took a step forward and butted her head against Waverly’s fingers. Waverly smiled but remained motionless, allowing the cat to brush up against her two, and then three, times.

Calamity rubbed up against Waverly’s knee and allowed her to scratch her between the ears. Waverly murmured something to the cat that she couldn’t hear. And then, as Nicole watched in astonishment, Calamity curled up in Waverly’s lap, purring.

“Never back down from a challenge, do you?” Nicole murmured fondly as she sat down next to Waverly with her first aid kit. “Want me to check your…” She couldn’t – just… _could not_ – say ‘gunshot wound’. “…wound?”

Waverly winced. “Can it wait till the morning? I’m…I just want to go to sleep.”

“Of course,” Nicole said, leaning forward to press what she meant to be a gentle kiss to Waverly’s temple, but Waverly turned to meet her lips with something that felt an awful lot like desperation. They kissed for a few minutes before Nicole realized she was having trouble keeping her hands from wandering. She pulled back, panting, “Waves, we shouldn’t. Your cut.”

“That…was not relaxing,” Waverly said, equally breathlessly.

They locked eyes for a long moment, then both began to laugh. “Come on,” Nicole said, standing and offering a hand down to Waverly, who gently dislodged Calamity before taking it and standing with a wince.

It brought home to Nicole, once again, how close she’d come to losing Waverly earlier in the day and she froze in place.

Waverly stopped and glanced at her in concern. “Hey, what…? Are you okay?”

“Uh….” Nicole inhaled sharply, trying to pull herself together. “Um, yeah. Just…glad you’re okay.” Waverly’s face softened, but there was a hint of surprise in her eyes too, and that broke Nicole’s heart. She took a step closer and folded Waverly in her arms. “Seriously. I’m just…glad you’re okay.”

Waverly reached up to brush Nicole’s loose hair away from her face. “I like your hair like this,” she said, obviously trying to change the subject. “I get why you have to have it back at work, but it’s pretty.”

“You like _my_ hair?” Nicole said, astonished. “You’re…beautiful, Waverly.” She heard Waverly’s started intake of breath and pushed through it to add, “Inside _and_ out.”

“Wynonna told me dudes dig scars.” Waverly sat on the side of the bed. “I asked Wynonna if chicks do.”

Nicole laughed and sat next to her. “And she didn’t get the hint?”

“Not sure. She gave me a look, but then Dolls came in and….” She trailed off with a shrug, then glanced uncertainly at Nicole and suddenly Nicole realized where this was coming from.

“Well,” Nicole said, “this chick doesn’t care one way or another about scars, except that it…bothers me…to think you could have been hurt.” She caught Waverly’s eyes. “You’re beautiful, Waves, and no little scar on your side is gonna change that. I have my share of them anyway.”

“Will you tell me about them? Someday?”

Nicole chuckled as they lay down on the bed; she kept the conversation going because she could tell that Waverly was a little uneasy – and, truthfully, so was she. Her body was in no way used to sharing space like this and as much as she wanted…so much…with Waverly, she was also very conscious that this wasn’t meant to be a romantic moment. “They’re mostly mountain climbing mishaps, but sure.”

“You’re a mountain climber?” Waverly asked, spreading the extra blankets out over herself.

“Yeah. I haven’t had a chance since I moved here but I’d love to climb some of the cliffs around here someday.”

“I’ve always wondered what that’s like. Climbing a mountain and seeing the sunset from the top.”

“It’s…incredible. You’re just…you never feel closer to nature and the whole circle of life thing than when you’re looking at mollusk fossils two inches in front of your nose fifty feet up a rock wall.” She sighed. “The first time I actually summited something and saw…all that nature all around me? It was the one time I really understood where my parents were coming from.”

“Hm?”

“New Agey hippies.”

Waverly rolled over and propped her head on her hand. “ _Really_?!”

“Yeah.” She sighed, staring at the ceiling because the outrage on her behalf that she knew she’d see in Waverly’s eyes would…break her. “They hate that I’m a cop. I’m…part of the System.” A pause. “Everyone assumes they basically disowned me ‘cause I’m gay.” She shrugged. “At least people would _get_ that, even if it sucked. But, no, my parents basically disowned me ‘cause I wanna keep people safe…but I wear a uniform while I do it and….”

“Oh, Nicole,” Waverly breathed.

“So your disaster of a family?” She finally glanced over at Waverly, but had to look away to keep her composure. “You’re pretty lucky in some ways. You have Wynonna. She’s a mess but she _loves_ you, Waverly. No matter what. And that’s…pretty special.”

There was something in Waverly’s eyes, but Nicole decided neither of them was up to digging it out at the moment, so she leaned back fully and reached out an arm, offering to snuggle if Waverly wanted.

Waverly wanted.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, “for letting me stay here. I just – a break from all of that is…it helps. At least I can…sleep.”

“Anytime, baby. I really mean it. I like having you here. It’s nice having someone to talk to who can talk back to me.”

The bed dipped as Calamity hopped up onto the bed and curled up at their feet while Waverly rested her head on Nicole’s shoulder and wrapped her free arm around Nicole’s waist. “Nicole?”

“Yeah?”

“I _love it_ when you call me ‘baby.’”

Nicole knew it was too soon – far too soon – to feel ‘I love _you_ ’ on the tip of her tongue, but she had to swallow the words anyway. “Good,” she said instead and began to lightly run her fingers up and down Waverly’s arm until she could tell Waverly was deeply asleep. “‘Cause I like sayin’ it.”

There was trouble on the horizon – she could feel it. But for tonight, she had Waverly in her arms and Calamity Jane warming her feet, and it was pretty damn close to paradise.

 

**Author's Note:**

> My writing brain is funny. Just when I think I don't have any other stories brewing, my brain wanders as I drive home from work and I realize, "Wait, Nicole calls Waverly 'baby' in the barn to no apparent reaction. Wonder when that started?" and then over the course of a couple of weeks, I write another 6,000 word story.
> 
> This is the last of my in-progress stories, and the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is generally crazy at work, so no promises, but who knows?


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